Arrival || Movie Mondays

Arrival is a 2016 science fiction movie starring Amy Admas and Jeremy Renner. The movie is based on the book, “Story of your life” by Ted Chiang.

The Plot

Aliens arrive on Earth at 12 different locations and global tensions rise as the world tries to discover what they what. Amy Adams is Louise Banks, a linguistic specialist who is asked to attempt communications with the aliens. Jeremy Renner is Ian Donnelly, a physicist who is asked to help. While Louise is working with Ian, she suffers from flashbacks of her daughter who died due to an incurable disease. Louise is able to understand the language that the aliens use after working closely with them. She learns that they want to gift mankind with their language which allows people to gaze through time.

Thoughts on the Story

The story, I found, to be a bit slow in places. But it has to be for a really good reason. I don’t want to do any spoilers but the answers are all in front of you from the beginning. During the movie, we are shown flashbacks as Louise remembers them. But as the movie comes to a close, we learn that her memories are a glimpse of the future. This is a tough concept to get your mind around. Louise has been seeing her future and will be presented with opportunities to change it. The big question is not, will she? But would you?

Fin

Arrival is mainly about the arrival of aliens and how we could communicate with them. We all like to think that they would bring some amazing technology that would change how we live, hopefully for the better. But what if how they communicate changes how our minds work and alters our perception of the universe? And if you could see the future, what would you do? Would you change anything about your life? Would you have a baby with the man you love, knowing that you would have to watch them die?